A delegation of foreign journalists went to the Alawite neighbourhoods of Homs. Expecting to see peaceful demonstrations, they saw security forces under siege from unidentified gunmen, and impact damage from rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). They were able to gather testimonials from the local populace who had suffered atrocities at the hands of the insurgents, but “they did not publish these facts on their return, fearing they would be criticised by the mainstream media for breaking with the generally accepted narrative”.

The Syrian model of an Arab society offends extremist and closed Muslim societies. It now seems to offend the USA and its allies. If they have their way, it will disappear along with the Assad regime. That will be a sad day for the Middle East, and a worse one for the Western powers, who will have unleashed an uncertain future on millions of defenceless non-Muslims and non-extremist Muslims.

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This entry was posted on April 4, 2012 at 17:33 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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7 Responses to “Syria still under the veil”

The Middle East and all its variations is doing my head in these days. But I’ve seen the pattern developing to overthrow Assad, despite his still overwhelming popularity amongst his people. The Russians and Chinese do well to stay out of this one.

I read the article: it left out a lot. The Assad regime is politically highly repressive, despite being socially liberal. It has also interfered constantly and viciously in Lebanon and is the main conduit of arms to Hezbollah. The collapse of the regime would be a boon to Lebanon and further isolate Hezbollah and Iran. I suspect that realpolitik is why so many Western governments (and the Turks) are supporting the opposition.